By the President of the United States Of America
A Proclamation
While there has been a significant reduction in the number of deaths among young children as a result of poisoning, poisoning still remains one of the most common medical emergencies involving children.
The reductions which have been accomplished over the years have largely been the result of cooperation among the medical, pharmaceutical, dental, nursing, and allied professions; Federal, State, and local government agencies, community organizations; and private industry. New Federal laws, including the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970 have also played an important part in this achievement.
We must continue to use every possible preventive measure to further reduce poisoning as a threat to the health of all Americans. To help call attention to this effort, the Congress, in a joint resolution approved September 26, 1961 (75 Stat. 681), requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating the third week in March as National Poison Prevention Week.
Now, Therefore, I, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning March 17, 1974, as National Poison Prevention Week.
I direct all appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to participate actively in programs designed to promote maximum protection of our people against accidental poisoning, particularly among children. Further I invite all State and local governments, and private organizations and individuals to share in this national effort.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.
RICHARD NIXON
Richard Nixon, Proclamation 4268—National Poison Prevention Week, 1974 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/307191